


Recovery

by SeraphiJade



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Fluff, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 09:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6045913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeraphiJade/pseuds/SeraphiJade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sora and Kairi try to help Riku recover from the physical and emotional wounds of his journey. Set immediately after the events of Kingdom Hearts 2. One-shot. For igneousflower, who inspires me to keep writing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recovery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [igneousflower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igneousflower/gifts).



The King, Donald, and Goofy had left for their own world several hours ago, and Kairi had just headed home herself, leaving Sora and Riku alone, sitting on the sloping trunk of the paopu tree, where they watched the sunset and reflected on their own separate journeys.  
Mere days ago, Riku was convinced that he'd never hear the soft rush of waves- the sound of home- ever again. It was soothing to him, a small source of comfort from his own racing thoughts. He was nervous, afraid that his family wouldn't be as forgiving to him as Sora and Kairi were. On top of that, he was still in pain from when Xemnas struck him earlier. He was afraid that the injury was more serious than either of them had initially thought, but he hadn't mentioned it to Sora yet, not wanting to scare his friend again.  
Every so often, Sora would look in his direction and just stare at him, as though the boy was afraid that he'd disappear again if he took his eyes off of him for a minute. He was doing this now, and Riku noted that this time, the boy's eyes burned with an unspoken question. It took several moments for Sora to say anything.  
"Riku?"  
"Hm?"  
"It... it's getting late. Don't you think we should head home?"  
Riku hesitated. He still wasn't ready to face his family yet. Thankfully, Sora seemed to understand his concern.  
"You can spend the night at my house, if you like..."  
"Uh... sure." Riku said, secretly grateful for the offer. They both stood up and took that short walk from the paopu tree to their boats, Riku limping as each step made his side flare with pain.  
His pain doubled during the trip across the small stretch of ocean, but he still said nothing. The sun had almost set completely by the time the pair of them set foot on the shore of the main island. Riku struggled to get across the small strip of beach, but the uneven and soft sand made it very difficult to walk. He eventually knew he would have to swallow his pride and ask for help.  
"Sora?" He let himself fall to his knees as he called out his friend's name. Sora took one look at him and rushed to his side.  
"Riku! Oh gods, I forgot that you were hurt. I'm really sorry!" he said as he lifted Riku and supported him the rest of the way to his house.  
Sora stopped cold as he stood next to the door of his own home. It had been more than a year since he had snuck out of his bedroom window, intent on leaving everything behind and going on a journey. He'd never taken his family into account in his eagerness, and now he knew he would have a lot of explaining to do, but he didn't know if he was ready for that.  
Riku began to tremble as Sora stood there and contemplated. Yet again, he had forgotten that Riku was hurt. That had been the thing that made up his mind for him. He was prepared to take a verbal lashing from his mother if it meant Riku would get the treatment he needed. He reached out a shaking hand and knocked on the door.  
A woman with soft brown hair and a gentle expression answered- Aimi, Sora's mother. She took one look at who stood in front of her, and her eyes widened.  
"Sora..." she breathed.  
"Mom... I'm home..." he said as tears formed in his eyes.  
\---  
The next thing Aimi saw was the pale, trembling form of her son's best friend leaning on his shoulder. In an instant, her entire demeanor changed. She rushed to Riku's side and helped Sora support him. As the pair of them guided Riku to the guest room, Aimi shouted for her husband to come quickly. His reaction was about the same as hers: he froze in the doorway as he saw Sora helping his mother ease Riku onto the bed.  
"Sora?" he said in disbelief.  
"Not now, Haru!" Aimi said urgently. "It's Riku, something's wrong with him!" she added, prompting Haru to rush over and start looking the boy over. While he watched his father work, Sora was suddenly grabbed by the arm and ushered out of the room by his mother. Aimi guided him to the living room and seated him on a chair.  
"You're not to move from that spot until you answer my questions!" she said with an intensity that made Sora cringe where he sat. "You, and two of your friends up and disappear for more than a year, we were worried sick! And then you just show up out of nowhere, in clothes I've never seen before, with Riku half passed out on your shoulder! What happened?"  
Sora sighed. "It's a very long story..." he said.  
"You've got plenty of time to tell it!" Aimi said, annoyed. So Sora told his tale, with as much detail as his memory could give him. Aimi listened to every word, wearing an expression that mingled disbelief and concern. As Sora got to the end of his tale, his mother looked at him questioningly, then stood up and laid a hand on the boy's forehead.  
"Did you hit your head, son? Were you drugged? Do you feel alright?" She asked as she did so.  
Now it was Sora's turn to get annoyed. "I'm telling the truth!" He said, flustered. "I have proof and everything! But... if I show you... you have to promise not to tell a soul!"  
Aimi did not look impressed, but she gave in anyways. "You know I'd never tell your secrets, Sora. Please, can I see this proof?"  
Sora stood and took a deep breath, not sure if it was okay to reveal this to his family even. Reaching out his hand, he allowed his weapon to materialize in his hand.  
Aimi let out a shriek and backed away, nearly knocking over a table in the process.  
"That's why I was gone for so long!" Sora said sadly as he dismissed the Keyblade. "I had to save Kairi, I had to find Riku. Everyone needed me. They may still need me. But... if I had it my way, I'd never leave home again. I've missed all of you so much!"  
Aimi seemed to soften with that remark. She walked over to her son and enveloped him in one of the tightest hugs he'd ever received. Then the tears began to fall, both of them crying quietly as mother held son tightly in her arms.  
"I've missed you too." Aimi said. At that moment, Haru rushed into the living room alerted by the shriek Aimi let out when she first saw the Keyblade.  
"Is everything okay out here?" he asked, alarmed.  
"Everything fine, things just got a little heated, that's all!" Aimi said quickly.  
"Is Riku okay?" Sora asked.  
"Huh? Oh, he's going to be fine. He had a few severe injuries that needed to be looked over, but the worst of it was exhaustion. I don't know what you two have been through, but it completely wiped him out."  
Sora let out a relieved sigh. "Can I see him?"  
"I see nothing wrong with it."  
\---  
The first thing Sora noticed was that Riku's hair was shorter, and sloppily cut. When Sora gave a questioning look to his father about it, Haru was quick to answer.  
"His hair was way too long, it was interfering with my ability to tend to his wounds. We both agreed, it would be a lot easier on both of us if it was out of the way, so he let me cut it." He scratched the back of his head self-consciously. "I didn't do a very good job though. Maybe Aimi or someone else can fix that later..."  
In sleep, it was easy to see just how much the journey had affected Riku. Though he had grown taller, he was also noticeably thinner. His face had a slight grimace on it. He mumbled softly in his sleep. Sora noticed that his wrist guard had been removed and replaced with a splint and bandage. He reached out and gently caressed that hand before gripping it tightly in his own.  
All those months of uncertainty had left Sora anxious. The Organization continued to play their mind games on him, making him wonder if Riku was even alive. And the King had been sworn to secrecy. The reunion was bittersweet. Riku was alive, but trapped in the form of their enemy. If not for that lucky chance, he'd probably still be trapped like that.  
The door opened, startling Sora out of his thoughts. His father walked in, leading a woman with pale blond hair and piecing green eyes. It looked as though she had been crying. This must have been Riku's mother. It was at that moment that Sora realized, he had never actually met Riku's parents before. She called out his name and rushed to his side.  
"Riku, can you hear me, sweetheart?" she said gently as she took his hand, stroking his hair with her free hand. "Please, say something..."  
"He's not going to answer, Midori." Haru said with as much gentleness as he could manage. "His wrist was badly broken, I had to sedate him so I could set it properly." he explained. "It's going to take a couple hours for it to wear off."  
\---  
Both Sora and Midori kept silent vigil at Riku's side as he slept off the effects of the sedative. The two of them talked for some of the time, and during that conversation, Sora learned that Riku's father had died while he was still very young. It had just been him and his mother ever since. When Sora told her that he had tried to hide the injury at first, it was revealed that even she felt that Riku could be too headstrong for his own good sometimes.  
"It isn't the first time he's done that." she sighed. "There was one time, where he told anyone who showed any concern that he just had a cold. Nobody knew just how sick he had gotten until I found him struggling to breathe in his room one morning. We nearly lost him, simply because he thought that he would inconvenience everyone."  
"That sounds like him..." Sora agreed. He could remember that too, that one time where he didn't see Riku in school for nearly a month. He remembered tearfully asking his parents if he had moved away after a week of his absence. Riku did come back, looking a little thinner and paler, but that didn't matter to Sora.  
"Then he went and did that... I still don't know why he wanted to leave home so badly. We'd gotten into so many arguments about it." Midori said, deep in thought. "But that doesn't matter anymore. He's home, and in relatively good shape. Sora... thank you for bringing him back."  
"Uh... it's not a big deal..." Sora stammered.  
Riku began to stir softly, getting both Sora and Midori's attention. His eyes opened, letting out a soft wince of pain as they adjusted to the light. He looked around the room, still slightly dazed from the effects of the sedative.  
"Is it over?" he asked in a slightly slurred voice. "My head really hurts..."  
"I can get Dad to give you something for that, if you want..." Sora said.  
"That'd really help..." Riku said, trying to sit up. As Sora got up and left the room, he became suddenly aware that there was another person in there with him. His eyes widened when he got a glimpse of who it was.  
"Mom..." Now it was Riku's turn to start crying as he looked into Midori's own tearing eyes. With as much strength as he could muster, Riku nearly threw himself into his mother's arms.  
"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!" He said repeatedly as he sobbed into her shoulder. Midori gently nudged him back, cupping his face in her hands and wiping his tears away.  
"There's nothing to be sorry for!" She said, looking deep into her son's eyes. "Sora told me everything. I'm just glad you're safe."  
Riku sat back down, rubbing his eyes on the back of his wrist. "You're really not angry? Even after everything that I've done?"  
"You made a mistake, and you learned from it. It won't be the last one. That's a big part of growing up," Midori said simply.

\------

Kairi was pounding on Sora's front door first thing the following morning. She had heard that Riku had collapsed on the beach, and was worried about him. It was a great relief for her when she found him in the guest room, wide awake and in relatively good spirits, talking with Sora and his mother. She knocked soundly on the wall to get their attention.  
"Hi there!" she greeted them brightly. "Riku, I'd heard about last night. How're you feeling?"  
"Could be better..." he admitted. "But still, this is preferable to what I thought I was going to have to live with."  
Riku's mind was still in a dark place. Though his friends and his mother may have forgiven him, he still didn't feel worthy of all the affection he was being shown. Not to mention that it felt so alien to him after all those months of isolation and self-loathing. He tried to let himself relax and enjoy it, but it was proving more difficult than he thought.  
Kairi seemed to notice how the simple question troubled him, as she quickly changed the subject.  
"What in the worlds happened to your hair?" she asked in a scolding tone. She had just noticed the shorter, but very sloppy, uneven hairstyle. It didn't really fit him.  
"My dad cut it." Sora said simply. "It was making it difficult for him to treat his wounds. Unfortunately he was more focused on convenience than style."  
"I can fix that for you, if you want." Kairi offered.  
"Uh... sure..." Riku said reluctantly. It wasn't like he had other plans today. Haru had confined him to this room until his strength returned, and the injury on his waist made it too painful to walk very far anyways. Xemnas had struck him with enough force to bruise him deeply. Haru said he was lucky, if the blow had landed a little lower, it would've shattered the bones in his hip.  
Kairi was deft and skillful as she worked, carefully cutting away a little more of his hair in an effort to even out the sloppy job Haru had done last night. Riku grimaced slightly as he saw alarmingly long locks of silver fall from his head, afraid that Kairi might be overdoing it. When she was done, she took a small mirror from her pocket and handed it to him. His eyes widened when he saw his reflection.  
His long hair had become something of a security blanket for him during his journey, helping him hide his face and his shame from the world. But this new hairstyle hid nothing. The face that gazed back at him looked thin, yet boyish, and most certainly human, not the demon he was afraid he had become.  
"It really brings out your eyes," Kairi breathed as she looked at the result of her handiwork. "I had no idea they were... so pretty..."  
Sora said nothing, but the look of awe on his face told Riku that he agreed with Kairi's sentiment. It was the polar opposite of the expression that haunted his nightmares. It was a regular occurrence- Riku would often wake up in a cold sweat and sometimes with tears in his eyes, reminding himself that the looks of hatred, revulsion, and loathing that Sora and Kairi had given him were not real.  
He was so relieved that he didn't realize he had started to cry.  
"Riku? Are you alright, you're not in any pain, are you?" Sora asked in concern, causing Riku to quickly hide his face.  
"It's nothing..."  
"Are you sure? If something's bothering you, you know you can talk to us." Sora said encouragingly.  
"I guess I'm just relieved." Riku confessed. "All this time... I thought I was going to be fought off or rejected when we finally met again. That's why I'm so grateful to have your forgiveness."  
"Oh, Riku..." Kairi said sadly.  
"Hey, you're way too hard on yourself, you know that?" Sora said, trying to lift everyone's spirits. "What I said back in the World that Never Was, I meant it. You're still my friend, no matter what! So you made a few mistakes? Whatever! Nobody really got hurt by them! We're all home safe, and you played a pretty big role in that."  
"Yeah..." Riku agreed. "Best friends, no matter what..."  
His response was half-hearted though. He still felt very guilty about everything he had done. But at least he had the forgiveness of those nearest and dearest to him. That would do for now. Maybe someday, he could learn to forgive himself. But that day was still far off.


End file.
